The simplified answer

Silicon is mounted beneath non-reflective glass to produce
photovoltaic panels. These panels collect photons from the
sun, converting them into DC electrical power.
To make a PV system the power created then flows into an
inverter.
The inverter transforms the power into AC electrical power.

That is a very brief explanation, but some may prefer a more
in depth answer to the question, “How do solar panels work?”
Here is the more detailed response, though it still remains
fairly basic:

The Physics

To start off, it is crucial that silicon be better explained.
Silicon has four electrons in its outer shell. However, it has
the capacity to hold eight.

By sharing these four electrons with other silicon atoms and
their four shell electrons, the capacity of eight is filled.
When they combine with each other in this way, silicon atoms
develop a strong, stable bond. This structure is known as
pure, crystalline silicon.
Of course, this pure silicon is a poor conductor of electricity,
as there are no electrons free to move about.
In other words, the silicon is better off with impurities.
To create these impurities, silicon is combined with something
else.

When silicon combines with an element that has five electrons
to share, such as phosphorus, a negative charge is created.
Silicon can only take four of the five electrons.
This leaves one free electron looking for a spot. These additional
electrons are known as free carriers; they carry an electrical current.

On the other hand, when silicon is combined with an element
that has three electrons a positive charge is created.
Boron is a material which suits this purpose. When silicon and
boron are combined, holes are created.
These silicon combinations and their differing charges are
used to make solar panels.

As photons come down from the sunlight and strike the silicon,
it
shakes
everything
up.

The free electron that was hanging onto the silicon/
phosphorous combination is now forced to the outer ring.
From here, it gets sucked up to the outer ring of the silicon/
boron combination.
This is how electricity is created

Today's most common PV devices use a single junction, or in-
terface, to create an electric field within a semiconductor such
as a PV cell.

In a single-junction PV cell, only photons whose energy is equal
to or greater than the band gap of the cell material can free an
electron for an electric circuit.

In other words, the photovoltaic
response of single-junction cells
is limited to the portion of the
sun's spectrum whose energy is
above the band gap of the ab-
sorbing material, and lowerenergy
photons
are
not
used.

One way to get around this limi
tation is to use two (or more)
different cells, with more than
one band gap and more than
one junction, to generate a voltage. These are referred to as
"multi-junction" cells (also called
"cascade" or "tandem" cells).
Multi-junction devices can
achieve a higher total conver-
sion efficiency because they can
convert more of the energy
spectrum of light to electricity.
As shown above, a multijunction
device
is
a
stack
of
individual single-junction cells in descending order of band gap. Eg
the top cell captures the high-energy photons and passes the
rest of the photons on to be absorbed by lower-band-gap cells.
Much of today's research in multi-junction cells focuses on gallium
arsenide
as
one
(or
all)
of
the
component
cells.

Such cells have reached efficiencies of around 35% under concentrated
sunlight.

Other materials studied for
multi-junction devices have
been amorphous silicon and
copper indium di-selenide.

As an example, the multi-
junction device below uses
a top cell of gallium indium
phosphide, "a tunnel junc-
tion," to aid the flow of
electrons between the cells,
and a bottom cell of gallium
arsenide.

The different panel types:
There are other materials other than doped silicone that exhibit
the
ability
to
move
electrons
.

Amorphous Glass Panels have a thin substrate coated onto
glass and flexible panels can be made by coating other materi-
This technology gives lower performing panels but are cheaper
in some circumstances.

Silicone based collectors come in two distinct types, Poly Crys-
taline and Mono-Crystaline.
Both poly-crystalline and mono-crystalline solar panels are
made from the same material, silicon.
However the difference is that the poly-crystalline material is
made up of millions or billions of small silicon crystals while
the mono-crystalline material is actual just that, one large
als.
singe crystal of silicon.

Single crystal silicon is more efficient at converting photons to
electrons for electricity, the poly-silicon its much less efficient
because electrons are captured or generated less efficiently
where the crystals of silicon touch.
However, even though poly solar panels are not as efficient,
they are cheaper to manufacture so they can still be competi-
tive on a £/watt basis.
They would just need more area to produce the same amount
of electricity as the mono-crystalline panels.

Panel Performances:

For any given set of operational conditions, cells have a single
operating point where the values of the current (I) and Voltage
(V)
of
the
cell
result
in
a
maximum
power
output.

These values correspond to a particular load
resistance, which
is equal to V / I as specified by
Ohm's Law.
The power P is given by P=V*I. A photovoltaic cell has an approximately
exponential
relationship
between
current
and voltage.

From basic circuit theory,
the
power
delivered
from
or
to
a
de-
vice is optimized
where the
derivative
(graphically, the
slope) dI/dV of the I-V
curve is equal and
opposite the I/V ratio
(where dP/dV=0).

This is known as the
maximum power point
(MPP) and corresponds
to
the
"knee" of the curve.